TheCorporateCounsel.net

Speaking of sanctions, the DOJ is extremely interested in companies’ efforts to comply with them.  Here’s an excerpt from this Davis Polk memo:

At a recent New York City Bar Association event, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco emphasized the centrality of national security to the Department of Justice’s white collar enforcement efforts. In particular, Monaco pointed to the enforcement of sanctions evasion and export control violations as key to the Department’s work to combat corporate crime. “One way to think about this is as sanctions being the new FCPA,” she said.

Although the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) has long been a focus of the Department’s corporate enforcement efforts, criminal enforcement of sanctions laws (the Trading With the Enemy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act) has not been as widely publicized as a Department priority for corporate enforcement. Monaco’s remarks have thrown such enforcement under the spotlight.

The memo says that the DOJ appears poised to aggressively enforce sanctions evasion and export control violations, and it is possible that it seek harsher penalties and resolutions for violations of the sanctions laws. Because of the potential overlap between corruption and sanctions enforcement, the memo also says that the DOJ’s initiative could lead to increased collaboration with other agencies, including the State Department, the Commerce Department, and the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Involvement of multiple agencies and departments may make investigations and their resolution much more complicated.

– John Jenkins